Figure 1.
Model of the circuitry contributing to relapse in animal models and altered in neuroimaging studies in addicts, with emphasis on the key position of the cortico-accumbens glutamatergic projection, and the interconnected glutamatergic projections between allocortical and prefrontal cortical regions. This review focuses on drug-induced pathologies in the glutamatergic projections from prefrontal and allocortex into the nucleus accumbens. Glutamatergic pathologies are relatively less known for the cortico-cortical projections, but any glutamatergic-based pharmacological therapy will likely affect these projections in a manner either synergistic or countermanding the therapeutic effects on the cortico-accumbens pathologies. Arrows indicate direction of the projection and are color coded as follows: blue, dopamine; blue/red, dopamine/glutamate co-released; green, GABA/peptides co-released; red, glutamate. Abbreviations: BLA, basolateral amygdala; BNST, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis; core- nucleus accumbens core; dorsal ACC, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex; Hipp, hippocampus; OFC, orbital frontal cortex; PPN, pedunculopontine nucleus; shell, nucleus accumbens shell; subgen ACC, subgenual anterior cingulate cortex; VTA, ventral tegmental area.